The price of bitcoin as of 8.20 a.m. on December 24, after a very volatile week. Markets Insider

Even after a rough week, bitcoin is trading at around $14,400.

A recent research note from Morgan Stanley points out how hard it is to justify that valuation.

The scarcity of people willing to accept it as a means of payment indicates that its actual value might be nothing.

Morgan Stanley analyst James Faucette and his team sent a research note to clients a few days ago suggesting that the real value of bitcoin might be ... $0.

That's zero dollars. (Bitcoin stood at around $14,400 at the time of writing.)

The paper (titled "Bitcoin decrypted") did not give a price target for bitcoin.

But in a section titled "Attempts to Value Bitcoin," Faucette described why it is so hard to ascribe value to the cryptocurrency. It's not like a currency, it's not like gold, and it has had difficulty scaling. He concluded:

• Very difficult question to answer, but some points to consider

• Can Bitcoin be valued like a currency? No. There is no interest rate associated with Bitcoin.

• Like digital gold? Maybe. Does not have any intrinsic use like gold has in electronics or jewelry. But investors appear to be ascribing some value to it.

• Is it a payment network? Yes but it is tough to scale and does not charge a transaction fee.*

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